What type of shoes does the pope wear?

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I'm doinag a school project on Pope John Paul 11, but there are alot of questions i can't answer! This the question I'm having alot of trouble on... what kind of shoes does the Pope wear? How am i meant to know that? Well there is another question and it's... what does the pope wear on his head & what does it symbolise. Some other queations are... where does the pope go for his holidays and when did the Pope visit western Australia? The report is due pretty soon so if you could get those answers back to me as soon as possible that would be great(if you have the answers!) Bye!

-- Kelly Fry (Toorak@smartchat.net.au), March 18, 2001

Answers

Jmj

Hi, Kelly.
This is not quite what my teachers had in mind when they told me to do some research!

What kind of shoes does the Pope wear?
(1) The Shoes of the Fisherman (according to a 1968 movie about a fictional pope).
(2) "big" shoes (according to those who say we will have "big shoes to fill" when he leaves us).
(3) ceremonial red shoes for Vatican affairs and white leather boots for hiking in the snowy mountains. [That's a serious answer.]

What does the pope wear on his head & what does it symbolise?
(1) He wears a white silk skullcap, called a ZUCCHETTO (though officially called "pileolus" in Latin). This kind of cap is believed to have originated in the 1200s as a covering of the clerical tonsure. [Check your dictionary for tonsure.]
(2) For liturgical ceremonies, he wears a MITRE -- that tall, pointed, folding linen headdress. The Catholic bishops' use of mitres goes back to the first millennium, and they are symbolic of episcopal authority.

Where does the pope go for his holidays?
To escape the high heat and humidity of Rome/Vatican City during the summer, he has a summer residence in the Alban hills, south of Rome, in a town called Castel Gandolfo. In July, it is so hot even there that he takes a vacation in the Dolomite Mountains (an extension of the Alps) in northern Italy. Here is the way his vacation was reported in 1996:
"Pope John Paul is scheduled to depart July 10 for a vacation in [the village of] Lorenzago di Cadore in the Dolomites of the northeastern Veneto region of Italy, where he will remain until the afternoon of July 23. He previously vacationed in Lorenzago in 1987, 1988, 1992 and 1993. ... His time in Lorenzago di Cadore, a village of 600 people, will be, as it has been in past years, a period of rest, prayer, study and long walks in the nearby mountains and forests. He will stay in a house which is the property of the bishop of Treviso ...

When did the Pope visit western Australia?
Pope Paul VI visited Australia in 1970. Pope John Paul II visited Australia twice:
-- in 1986 (Nov. 18 to Dec 1), in Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne, Darwin, Alice Springs, Adelaide, and Perth.
-- in 1995 (January) in Sydney, for the beatification of Mother Mary MacKillop.

St. James, pray for us.
God bless you.
John
PS: You got better results than Nathan Ferraro got [another student at your school?], when he came here for answers in 1999.

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), March 18, 2001.


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